I. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides an apparatus for treating organic waste.
II. Description of Related Art
Restaurants and other business establishments that process food, as well as manufacturing facilities, typically generate a great amount of organic waste. This organic waste includes not only ground food particles, but also grease, fat, oils, lipids, cutting oils, cellulose materials and the like, hereinafter collectively referred to as “organic waste”.
If such business establishments were to discharge the organic waste directly into a sewage system, the sewage system would rapidly become clogged with the organic waste. Consequently, many municipalities forbid such business establishments from directly discharging such waste, and essentially grease, into the sewage system.
In order to comply with these governmental regulations, many businesses which generate organic waste pretreat the organic waste in a “grease trap” before flushing organic waste into the sewage system. The grease trap is typically a tank having an interior chamber. A weir is disposed within the tank and divides the tank into an inlet chamber and an outlet chamber.
The organic waste is introduced into the top of the inlet chamber while an outlet open to the top of the outlet chamber is fluidly connected to the waste disposal or sewage system. An opening in the weir near the bottom of the tank and at a position below the inlet and outlet fluidly connects the inlet chamber to the outlet chamber.
In practice, as the organic waste is introduced into the inlet chamber, both the inlet and outlet chamber fill to a liquid level equal to the liquid level of the outlet from the outlet chamber. Organic waste such as oils, fats, greases, and similar substances not only does not dissolve within water but is also less dense than water. As such, this organic waste floats to the top of the inlet chamber of the tank.
Microbes capable of biodegrading the organic waste are then introduced into the inlet chamber of the tank. In the ideal situation, these microbes degrade the organic waste, after which the now degraded organic waste flows through the weir opening, to the outlet chamber and ultimately to the waste disposal system.
These previously known grease traps, however, have not proven highly effective in biodegrading the organic waste within the inlet chamber of the tank for a number of reasons. One reason is that the microbes introduced into the inlet chamber tend to conglomerate within certain regions of the inlet chamber leaving other regions with insufficient microbes to completely degrade the organic waste. In other situations, the temperature of the material contained within the grease trap is too low or too cold and thus insufficient to promote biodegradation of the organic waste within the grease trap.
As a result, these previously known grease traps must disadvantageously be cleaned on a regular basis to remove excess grease and other undegraded organic waste. Such periodic cleaning of the grease trap, however, is both expensive and labor extensive. Furthermore, unless the grease trap is routinely cleaned, undegraded organic waste may flow directly from the inlet chamber to the outlet chamber of the grease trap and directly to the sewage disposal system. The introduction of untreated or undertreated organic waste into the sewage disposal system may clog the damaged sewage disposal system or create other damage to the sewage disposal system and/or health hazards.